The blog of Navalny in English

The Czech authorities have confirmed the authenticity of the documents published yesterday, as well as the fact that our colonel-general held a residency permit there.

“A long-term residency permit corresponds to a residence visa”,an official of the Czech Embassy in Russia explained to the Gazeta.Ru. A residency permit allows a person to stay in the country during the document’s validity period and to be engaged in the business declared by the person, the diplomat said.http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2012/07/26_a_4694797.shtml

Czechia has acknowledged Bastrykin’s residency permit.

The Czech Interior Ministry confirmed the authenticity of the document stating that the head of the Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, had been granted long-term residence in the Czech Republic. It has been published in the Financial Times.The document was valid from February 2007 to February 2009, for the purposes of being the manager of a Czech company LAW Bohemia.In addition, the Czech police were informed about the wrongfulness of Mr Bastrykin’s actions, as he hadn’t timely notified the Czech authorities that he had sold his share in the firm, the Rozhlas local media has informed. By law, the document had to be cancelled immediately after the sale. Moreover, the head of the Russia’s Investigative Committee was enjoying his residency permit for six monthshttp://lenta.ru/news/2012/07/27/czech/

- the Czech Interior Ministry misunderstood the difference between a residency permit and a visa;- poor knowledge of the Czech language didn’t allow the Czech Embassy’s officials to translate the phrase “dlouhodobému pobytu”[“long-term residence”] correctly;- The Czech Ministry of Internal Affairs kidnapped General Bastrykin, foisted a residency permit on him and forced him to buy real estate. They tortured him with Czech beer.-By the way, yesterday agent B. became the star of the Czech mass media.

The only, and extremely funny, comment has been given by Putin’s press-secretary, Dmitry Peskov:

The Kremlin regards the information about the director of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Basrtykin’s residency permit in the Czech Republic to be “Alexey Navalny’s publicity stunt”, the RBK Daily reports.The spokesman stressed that “it’s hard to judge the reliability of the information published on personal blogs”. “I can’t rule out the possibility that Navalny actually wrote about it on his page, but he forgot to send it to Vladimir Putin”, a president’s spokesman said.He added that he “doesn’t consider it necessary to read A. Navalny’s blog”.http://top.rbc.ru/politics/26/07/2012/661876.shtml

I’d like to inform both Dmitry Peskov and his chief that we haven’t forgotten to send our official letter to you; so please don’t forget to answer it.You needn’t read my homepage, of course, but you’re sure to read the Financial Times, the Vedomosti and statements of the foreign state representatives in relation to Russian officials.

We’re facing an interesting situation: the Czech Interior Ministry has already given its response, while Russia’s Investigative Committee and Putin keep silence.